went to see the perennial stage version at Bill Haney's North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT). Now in its 24th year! Once again I was blown away by the high caliber of theater that the adorable Mr. Hanney and his company have assembled.

Why, in this season of joy, are we so often brought to the point of tears? Well partly it's because the past, as Mr. Faulkner said, isn't past. It's always present, swirling around us, reminding us of who we were, are, and ought to be (and maybe where we ought to be, and with whom).

Early Scrooge and Draper appear "normal" enough, if unsavory, to be representative of mainstream society, yet we are aware of a low-grade pathology at work. Bateman would drive off the cliff, laughing maniacally.

Today's audiences have been convinced to identify with the wealthy so they focus on Scrooge's redemption, satisfied they are not as bad as he was, and joyous at his redemption. What they should be recognizing is that the vast majority of them are Bob Crachit.

In this lifetime, I have learned that Christmas magic is powerful, but the power in our hearts is even more magical. Our ability to love one another, to renew our faith and bring hope into our lives and the lives of others, are the greatest of gifts to bestow and receive.

Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in six weeks during October and November 1843, and it appeared just in time for Christmas, on December 17. The book's effect was immediate, and it has been credited with popularizing the phrase 'Merry Christmas.'

Todayʼs liberals and progressives still believe the American conservative who espouses a free market-I got mine-you get yours philosophy can be changed if only shown the damage such a viewpoint engenders. This Charlie Brown naivete pervades the political establishment on the left.

Dickens, a fierce critic of the Victorian class system and the treatment of the poor, marries social realism to sentimentality here. It succeeds in this crisp rendition because Scrooge's ethical awakening isn't forced.

Can't there ever be a disabled character in a book or film just because? Where the topic doesn't ever come up? All sorts of interesting stories can be written about a disabled character, without the disability ever being mentioned. You know, just like real people.

The film was not only the perfect remedy for my blues, but I came out of the theater convinced that I had just seen the truest, most honest, and thus, best Christmas movie ever made -- an opinion I have never swayed from.